Assessment of the Nursing Practice in COVID-19 Vaccination

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus vaccines may protect people from getting infected with coronavirus or developing severe symptoms by motivating the immune system to produce antibodies. Nurses manage everything involved in the vaccination process pre, during, and post-administration. Study Aim: This study aimed to assess nursing practice in COVID-19 vaccination. Methods: Descriptive design was used; the study was conducted on outpatients at Ain Shams University Hospital in Cairo, Egypt. Simple Random sampling of adult participants was enrolled in the study with inclusive criteria, which included patients able to read and write and able to use social media, two different web designed questionnaires on Google forms used to assess socio-demographic characteristics of the participants, health history, sides effects related to COVID-19 vaccine and assess nursing practice for people undergoing COVID-19 vaccination. Results: It showed a mean age of 47.19 ± 14.82 years, more than half of them were males (59.8%), and 48.2% were suffering from fever, headache (44.2%), ortho pain (37.8%), and pain on site of injection (43.5%) respectively. Concerning nursing care for participants before vaccination, 98.8 % of nurses took personal data. Most of them (85.5%) asked about chronic diseases regarding vaccination. Near two-thirds of them (70.2%) asked about using medication for chronic disease or allergy (55.2%) and were given instructions about the current effect of the vaccine (46.5%). The majority (96.25%) were not given instructions about the vaccination. While after vaccination, nearly two-fifths were instructed on the side effect (38.5%) and how to deal with side effects (42.2%), respectively. In comparison, the majority of the 98.8% and 93.75% did not take vital signs and observed the allergic effect. Conclusion: COVID-19 vaccination's most common negative effects were fever, headache, ortho pain, and pain at the injection site. More than half of the participants were taken analgesics after vaccination and before vaccination. The majority of nurses were taken personal data. Regarding vaccination, the majority of nurses asked about chronic diseases. Near two-thirds of them and 46.5% asked about using medication for chronic disease and allergy, and the majority of them did not take vital signs and were not observed for the allergic effect. Recommendations: Periodic educational programs for nurses regarding nursing intervention (pre, during, post) COVID-19 vaccines. Further nursing studies on the COVID-19 vaccine to better understand the nursing management of COVID-19 vaccine side effects.